In the personal care, health and beauty industry, it is common for viscid substances, such as lip coloring, moisturizers, crayons and other cosmetic products, as well as hemostatic and other pharmaceutical products, or polishes and other maintenance products, to be packaged in a stick-like shape in a small cylindrical protective case. Typically, these cases are referred to as compacts and, generally, are operable to move the stick between an extended position for personal application and a retracted position for storage.
In most conventional cases of this type, a cup-like base or reservoir supports the stick at its bottom end. The base is connected to a mechanism that is operable to shift the cup axially in the case. This axial movement shifts the opposite, or applicator, end of the stick between the extended application position, in which the applicator end is beyond the case, and back to the retracted position, in which the entire stick is drawn back within the case.
It is important that the base be securely attached to the bottom end of the stick otherwise it will become detached and unable to draw the stick back in to the case for storage. This attachment is commonly achieved by having a significant amount of the bottom end of the stick in the base portion. It is not uncommon for about five to thirty percent of the entire stick to reside in the base. The stick portion located in the base is inaccessible and unusable when the stick is worn down to the base.
For example, a conventional lipstick type compact may include a stick of lip coloring of about 2 inches in total length with about one-half of an inch of this stick being located in the base. In other words, a significant portion, (i.e., about twenty-five percent) of the stick is located in the base of the case and, therefore, is rendered inaccessible and unusable.
Considering the cost of personal care, health and beauty products, it is important to consumers to be able to use as much of the stick as possible. For example, the cost of a stick of lip coloring can be any where in the range of about 10 to 150 dollars per stick, and with as much as twenty-five percent or more of the stick inaccessible and unusable, the cost of the wasted lip coloring becomes significant to the consumer.
Experience has revealed that most cases do not readily dispense the portion of the stick in the base cup, and those that have the ability tend to entail intricate operating mechanisms. One known case that does enable an entire stick of lipstick to be used is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,654 issued to Davis on Jul. 18, 1972 ("the '654 patent"). As disclosed in the '654 patent, the lipstick dispenser includes a cup that supports the lipstick and that is operable to move the majority of the lipstick longitudinally in the case between its use position and storage position. The cup includes a longitudinally moveable bottom to eject the remaining portion of the lipstick located in the cup when it is the only remaining portion of the stick.
A known shortcoming with the dispenser disclosed in the '654 patent is its commercial availability and wide spread acceptance. As mentioned previously, most available dispensers of this packaging type do not have the capability to dispense the portion of the stick in the base. Since dispensers such as that disclosed by the '654 patent tend to include precision working components cooperating to dispense the remaining portion of the stick only when necessary, they tend to be relatively expensive to manufacture in comparison to the conventional dispensers and, therefore, for the most part, have not become widely accepted by the personal health and beauty industry. Another shortcoming includes the fact that the '654 dispenser is not directed to the recovery of the remaining portion of the stick from a conventional type dispenser.
To recover the inaccessible portion of the stick from conventional dispensers, consumers are typically required to use a simple tool, such as a brush or scoop-like accessory, to dig out this portion of the stick and to apply it. This method of recovery is unpleasant, tedious, sloppy and overall time consuming.
An example of variations of one known tool design for removing the inaccessible portion of the stick for the base is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,668 issued to Politzer on Sep. 26, 1967 ("the '668 patent"). The '668 patent discloses a hood that may use different types of projections, such as blades and hooks, to penetrate the lipstick when the hood is slid over the base and to draw the lipstick out of the base as the hood is withdrawn from the base. As disclosed in the '668 patent, the purpose of this design is to clean the remainder of the lipstick from the base in order to insert a refill lipstick. It is not concerned with application of such extracted lipstick after removal. The projections obliterate such portion to the extent that it becomes unpleasant, tedious, sloppy and overall time consuming to apply.
Thus, it is desirable to have a device that, in a pleasant, neat and time efficient manner, both recovers in one process most, if not all, of the inaccessible portion of a stick of a health and beauty product from its original packaging and is able to assist the application of such portion of the stick. It is also desirable that such device be economical to manufacture and use.